On Monday, I posted about the exercise that I've run in training sessions for more than two decades. I asked class participants to identify a time when it was "great to come to work." The class would create a composite description from dozens of specific descriptions. If you want to know what individual descriptions were like, click over to the Inflexion Advisors blog and read Mark Stelzner's post: "The Best Company I Ever Worked For." It's as good an example as you're going to find. Mark describes a new company. Many of the participants in my programs described something new. It was a first job, a new company, a new unit, or an experiment of some kind. The commonality was that it was a learning experience. Leaders are important. There's research that suggests that leaders aren't important. I've been a leader and a follower and I think that's junk. The boss makes a big difference every day. Situations vary a lot. I've trained people from businesses, police and fire departments, not-for-profit groups and just about everything else. As different as they are, they have lots of things in common. Working as a police sergeant is different than working as a team leader in a manufacturing company or an executive director in an advocacy group, but most of the human things are the same everywhere. So set your own experience aside for a moment. Read Mark's post. Then reflect on what you can learn from the great place to work that he experienced. Ask yourself: "What can we do to create something like that where I work?"